Known – even internationally – for his lack of sensitivity and hatred for the people, Bolsonaro has shown, throughout the pandemic, a complete disregard for deaths from Covid-19. The records clearly show that the President of the Republic not only belittled the impact of the disease but also mocked those who died because of it.

"So what?" and “I'm not a gravedigger, okay?” were some moments when Bolsonaro referred to the victims. There were no condolences: he's never expressed sorrow for the death of anyone. Among other absurd manifestations, it is worth highlighting that he mockingly imitated a person who couldn't breathe twice.

1. “I’m not a gravedigger, ok?”, says Bolsonaro answering about the victims of coronavirus (G1, April 2020)
2. Bolsonaro says that ‘sucker’ journalists have a smaller chance of surviving Covid. The President gave that statement during the meeting ‘Brazil beating Covid-19,’ at Palacio do Planalto. One month before that, Rodrigo Rodrigues, a journalist, had died of Covid. (G1, August 2020)
3. 251 thousand covid-related deaths: remember Bolsonaro’s remarks on the pandemic (Poder360, March de 2021)
4. The Covid Parliamentary Investigation Commission attributes 600 thousand deaths to the “negligence” of the Bolsonaro administration (Uol, October 2021)
5. Bolsonaro minimizes Covid-19-related deaths of children: ‘It’s an insignificant number (VEJA, January 2022)
6. “Everybody dies someday, there’s no escaping that. We’ve got to stop being a country of sissies.” Seven times in which Bolsonaro made insensitive remarks about deaths related to Covid-19  (Veja, January 2022)
7. After disdaining deaths from COVID, Bolsonaro minimizes hunger in Brazil (Estado de Minas, May 2022)

Bolsonaro embraced negationism and went against vaccination policies as much as he could. He disallowed the purchase of vaccines from Butantan, delayed the purchase of vaccines from Pfizer, and only purchased the minimum number of vaccines available from the Covax consortium. He's even said that vaccines could cause AIDS and spread the fear of being vaccinated among the population.

Not even childhood vaccination has escaped. Under his administration, fewer and fewer children are vaccinated either due to the non-availability of vaccines or because of fear spread among the population. In addition, Bolsonaro threatened, retaliated, and disseminated fake news about ANVISA employees who participated in the process of approving childhood vaccines against covid-19. As a result, these public servants began to receive death threats from Bolsonaro supporters.

The result was thousands of preventable deaths in a period when vaccination could already have started in the country and several others who did not get vaccinated because they listened to Bolsonaro.

ANTI-VACCINE CAMPAIGN

1. Bolsonaro says “he won’t be a guinea pig” for the Chinese vaccine (Poder 360, October 2020)
2. Any type of vaccine is ruled out, says Bolsonaro (UOL, October  2020)
3. "Turn into an alligator"; "You moron, I already caught the virus, why would I get vaccinated?"; "Which is worse, messing with people’s immune system.” During an event in Bahia, the President once again declares he won’t take the vaccine Against Covid-19 and sneers at people who say he is setting a bad example (Correio Braziliense, December 2020)
4. “The rush for a vaccine is unjustified,” says Jair Bolsonaro. The President states that the pandemic “is coming to an end” and that a “small bounce can come to happen”  (Poder 360, December 2020)
5. “I’ve got the best vaccine: the virus,” says Bolsonaro in Santa Catarina. His speech goes against health specialists (Poder 360, December 2020)
6. “As far as I know, less than half of the population will get vaccinated,” says Bolsonaro (Poder 360, January 2021)
7. Bolsonaro attacks Coronavac and lies about it not being scientifically proofed (
8. “Is the vaccine scientifically proven?”, says Bolsonaro while speaking for chloroquine in an evangelical service in Anapolis. The President even insisted on overreporting (UOL, June 2021) 
9. Bolsonaro: “I didn’t get vaccinated, and whoever wants to follow my example is welcome to” (Metrópoles, October 2021)
10. Bolsonaro makes an absurd and phony association between Aids and the Covid vaccine, specialists say. His speech transmitted live might compromise immunization plan, scientist worry (Folha, October 2021)
11. Bolsonaro’s supporters distort news to justify the President’s lie about the vaccine and HIV. Bolsonaro’s supporters claimed the president read an article in ‘Exame’ magazine. The text Bolsonaro read is from a conspiracy theory website; ‘Exame’ magazine published a news report in October 2020 which does not support the unfounded idea that the vaccine could cause AIDS (Estadão, October 2021)
12. Brazil does the opposite of other countries, discredits the vaccine, and treats Covid-19 with disdain (Jovem Pan, November 2021)
13. Bolsonaro wants to disclose names of Anvisa technicians who approved Pfizer for children (Gaúcha ZH, December 2021)
14. Minister of Health defends disclosing the names of Anvisa technicians; public servants have been receiving threats (Gaúcha ZH, December 2021)
15. Anvisa public servants have receives over 150 threats via e-mail (Congresso em Foco, December 2021)
16. Bolsonaro attacks child vaccination against Covid and spreads disinformation about the death of children. Anvisa approved vaccination. Bolsonaro downplays the number of children’s deaths due to Covid, saying that it’s next to zero; Health department counts 308 deaths of children between the ages of 5 and 11 (G1, January 2022)
17. Bolsonaro criticizes child vaccination and attacks Anvisa: ‘Self-righteous.’ During a live transmission, the President took the opportunity to discourage child immunization against COVID-19 (VEJA, January 2022)
18. Bolsonaro is isolated as the biggest anti-vax leader in the world (The Intercept Brasil, January 2022)
19. Anvisa public servants received 458 threats for defending child vaccination against Covid. Increase in attacks to the organization coincides with Bolsonaro’s statements Bolsonaro (Folha, February 2022)
20. Datafolha: Bolsonaro voters vaccinated less against Covid (Metrópoles, May 2022)
21. The Ministry of Health hires a company with no experience in SUS vaccines to distribute children’s doses. And no bidding was conducted (Folha, January de 2022)
22. Delay in vaccination against covid-19 in Rio claimed the lives of 31,000 people, according to a study (Valor, June 2022)

23. Bolsonaro criticizes Covid vaccine and minimizes racism in Brazil on American TV (Folha de São Paulo, June 2022)

BOYCOTTING THE PFIZER VACCINE

1. UK immunization: a 90-year-old woman is the first vaccinated against Covid-19, with the Pfizer vaccine (CNN, December 2021)
2. Government recognizes Pfizer's offer for vaccines but says that agreement would 'frustrate' Brazilians. The Ministry of Health claims the amount in the first quarter, 2 million doses, would be small, despite the amount being equal to the total imported by Fiocruz (Folha, January 2021)
3. Government rejected 70 million doses of Pfizer, of which 3 million could have already been used (Folha, March 2021)
4. Government finally announces that it has signed the purchase of doses of vaccines from Pfizer and Janssen (CNN, March 2021)
5. Pfizer vaccine: Brazil receives 1st batch of vaccines 4 months late (BBC, April 2021)
6. Pfizer officer speaks openly about Bolsonaro administration’s lethal delay in purchasing vaccines (El País, May 2021)
7. Emails show that the federal government ignored 10 Pfizer vaccine offers in one month (O Globo, May 2021)
8. 53 emails from Pfizer to the Bolsonaro administration went unanswered (Estadão, June 2021)
9. Pfizer has been ignored by the federal government at least 81 times (Cultura, June 2021)
10. Bolsonaro wants to disclose the names of Anvisa technicians who approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine in children (Gaúcha ZH, December 2021)

BOYCOTTING CORONAVAC

1. Bolsonaro discredits Pazuello and suspends the purchase of the CoronaVac vaccine. The decision was made a day after the Ministry of Health announced that he was negotiating the purchase of 46 million doses of the vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac with the Butantan Institute, in São Paulo (Jornal Nacional, October 2020)
2. 'I already had it canceled', says Bolsonaro about the purchase intention agreement with the Butantan Institute in partnership with Chinese pharmaceutical (G1, October 2020)
3. Any vaccine is ruled out (UOL, October 2020)

COVAX CONSORTIUM

1. Documents show that Brazil cut by half the number of vaccine doses through the Covax Facility (G1, May 2021)
2. Documents indicate that Brazil has given up more than 40 million doses of Covax (CNN, June 2021)
3. In a video, an advisor to the Office of the President’s Chief of Staff directly involves Bolsonaro in delaying the purchase of vaccines from WHO. Three days before the deadline for the purchase of vaccines, Bolsonaro had not yet decided on the purchase of vaccines from the Covax consortium (Crusoé, July 2021)

Believing in fake news and unqualified people– in addition to negationist doctors and hack scientists, Bolsonaro has even offered Chloroquine to the emus at Palácio do Planalto. During the pandemic, the President of the Republic spent public resources on his campaign to use ineffective medicines while boycotting all known effective measures to fight Covid-19, such as social distancing, the use of masks, and especially – and what proved to be fatal – vaccination.

Amid chloroquine, ivermectin, and all the rest of the covid-kit, today, we are the country with the most deaths from Covid per capita among the members of the G20. Bolsonaro remains oblivious to science and continues to defend Chloroquine, Ivermectin, and “herd immunity,” among others.

1. “Right-wing people take chloroquine, left-wing people lef takes Tubaína”, says Bolsonaro (Uol, May 2020)
2. Bolsonaro shows a chloroquine box to emus at Palácio da Alvorada (UOL, July 2020)
3. Bolsonaro raises a chloroquine box to greet the population in Bagé (RS) (Veja, July 2020)
4. “Early treatment:” the Bolsonaro government spends almost BRL 90 million on ineffective medicine, but has not yet paid Butantan for vaccines (BBC, January 2021)
5. Bolsonaro defends hydroxychloroquine nebulization to treat Covid (Metrópoles, March 2021)
6. Bolsonaro lies about ineffective drug and tells ministers to record pro-chloroquine videos (Folha, May 2021)
7. Bolsonaro completes 410 days of advertising ineffective drug against Covid (G1, May 2021)
8. Bolsonaro's history with hydroxychloroquine in 6 points: from Trump's tweets to Covid's CPI (BBC, May 2021)
9. During delivery of homes, Bolsonaro defends the use of hydroxychloroquine (Agência Brasil, June 2021)
10. Bolsonaro's live transmission crashes after president defends ineffective medicine against Covid (Cultura, September 2021)
11. At the UN, Bolsonaro defends ineffective “early treatment” (DW, September 2021)
12. Bolsonaro again defends ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine and attacks vaccination card (Congresso em Foco, December 2021)
13. Bolsonaro once again defends a drug rejected by Anvisa for Covid-19 (Congresso em Foco, January 2022)
14. Pro-chloroquine secretary rejects appeal against the recommendation of Covid kit by SUS (Folha de S. Paulo, February 2022)
15. On American TV, Bolsonaro defends ineffective medicine against covid and questions the effectiveness of vaccination (O Globo, June 2022)
16. Bolsonaro says he threatened a military doctor to prescribe medicine for Covid. “Bring the medicine or I'll transfer you to the border now, democratically,” reported the president in an interview to a YouTube channel (Veja, June 2022)
17. Bolsonaro once again defends ineffective drugs after Attorney General asks for the closing of investigations by the Covid CPI (Yahoo, July 2022)

Bolsonaro has always made a point of saying that everyone’s concern with the pandemic was “hysteria,” “wining,” and that it was just a “little flu.” He never admitted -nor mourned- the overwhelming number of deaths that occurred in the country; on the contrary: he doubted the numbers several times, preferring to bet on a “panel of cured people,” obviously useless, and on lies about the death toll in the pandemic.
 

His negationist attitude in the face of real, but frightening, data aimed to fuel a parallel reality – which only exist in the heads of his most alienated followers – that the pandemic was “made up,” and that everyone would become resistant to it once they got infected. His position became the official discourse of his administration and, in this way, all government officials became aligned to minimize the crisis, even while we had thousands of deaths every day.

1. Bolsonaro talks about 'hysteria' again and says that governors' actions on isolation harm the economy (G1, March 2020)
2. Bolsonaro government imposes blackout of data on covid-19 in Brazil amid soaring deaths (El País, June 2020)
3. “So what?”: Remember Bolsonaro’s sentences about covid-19 (BBC, July 2020)
4. "Rush for the vaccine is not justified," says Bolsonaro about immunization against Covid-19. According to the president, the pandemic is coming to an end, despite the increase in the number of cases and deaths. A month later, Manaus collapsed. (Folha, December 2020) 
5. ‘We will all die one day’: 251,000 deaths from covid: Remember Bolsonaro’s speeches about the pandemic (Poder 360, February 2021)
6. Bolsonaro in December: 'Pandemic is about to end.' Three months after the president's statement, the number of deaths skyrocketed in Brazil with almost three thousand deaths in one single day. Now, 280,000 have died (Estado de Minas, March de 2021)
7. “A little flu”: Remember what Bolsonaro has said about the pandemic, from a little flu and country of sissies to fussiness and silliness. (Folha de São Paulo, March 2021)
8. “No need to panic”: Verbal Virus: Bolsonaro’s statements about the pandemic (DW, March 2021) 
9. Planalto omitted the death of Bolsonaro's direct assistant from Covid-19. Server Silvio Kammers was the first fatal victim of the disease among employees around the president, who has denied serious cases in Planalto (O Globo, March 2021)
10. Bolsonaro says TCU [Federal Audit Court] questions 50% of covid deaths in 2020 (Poder 360, June 2021)
11. TCU contradicts Bolsonaro and denies questioning 50% of covid deaths (Poder 360, June 2021)
12. CGU will investigate ‘over-reports’ of Covid-19-related deaths, says Bolsonaro. After admitting error in the TCU report, the president says that states might have inflated numbers of deaths in the pandemic (CNN, June 2021)
13. How Bolsonaro used the TCU to justify his denialism (Nexo Jornal, June 2021)
14. Covid CPI wants to investigate distortion of pandemic data in Secom publications (Jornal Extra, July 2021)
15. “Vaccine Virus” and expectation of “herd immunity:” Bolsonaro minimizes Ômicron and suggests that variant is 'welcome' (Folha de São Paulo, January de 2022) 
16. “Brazilians jump into sewer and nothing happens”: 2 years of covid: Remember 30 sentences by Bolsonaro about pandemic (Poder 360, February 2022)

To Bolsonaro, Covid-19 has always been a “little flu” and should be treated as such. He daily fought against science during that period, saying that social isolation was unnecessary, that everyone should get infected to acquire "herd immunity,” and refusing to wear masks – in addition to demanding that people not use them in his presence. He instructed his supporters to spread fake news saying that empty coffins were being buried “to inflate the number of deaths” and that “any death now is from Covid.” He went so far as to treat Covid-19 as a fake pandemic created to disturb his already very infective government. He flooded social media with paranoia, conspiracy theories, and outright lies as thousands died daily.

1. Government launches 'Brazil Can't Stop' campaign against isolation measures. Post on the federal governments’ official profile on Instagram defends that quarantine should be restricted to the elderly (CNN, March 2020)
2. He called for an end to Social Isolation: Bolsonaro's address on social isolation causes controversy in the House of Representatives (Agência Câmara, March 2020)
3. Pro-Bolsonaro representative Carla Zambelli says in an interview that coffins were being buried empty in Ceará (VEJA, May 2020)
4. Bolsonaro says 'stay at home' is for the 'weak': Foolish talk' (UOL, September 2020)
5. Bolsonaro uses distorted German polls to criticize the use of masks. President quoted 'German university study' to discourage using the accessory. This ‘study’ is a mere online poll with little rigor and a disproportionate participation of skeptics of the pandemic (G1, February 2021)
6. Bolsonaro evaluates a decree against isolation and rejects judicial challenge (CNN, May 2021)
7. Pandemic CPI: Report accuses the federal government of delaying the purchase of vaccines and conducting unlawful negotiations in the Covaxin case (Agência Senado, October 2021)
8. Bolsonaro suggests that wearing a mask without washing it can cause pneumonia and kill people (Poder 360, October 2021)
9. Bolsonaro uses flooding of cities in Bahia to attack lockdown against Covid (Estado de Minas, December 2021)
10. 'Here, masks are prohibited', Bolsonaro tells forró musicians at Palácio do Planalto (Valor, December 2021) 
11. Bolsonaro government leaves country without information about covid-19 (Brasil de Fato, January 2022)
12. Bolsonaro says he raised awareness on social isolation in Brazil (Poder 360, February 2022)
13. CGU points to the loss of 1.1 million Covid tests by the Ministry of Health (Folha de S. Paulo, June 2022)

Believing in lies disseminated through WhatsApp and surrounded by denialist doctors and hack pseudoscientists in search of money and fame, Bolsonaro continues to think that Covid-19 is a low-severity disease and that the best way to become immune to it is through being infected. Relying on absurd and false theories and purposefully distorted studies, he convinced many people that the best way to get rid of the pandemic was for everyone to get infected soon—all of that while encouraging people not to get vaccinated – which caused countless perfectly preventable deaths.

1. Bolsonaro says contamination is more effective than Covid vaccine; experts disagree (G1, June 2021)
2. In seeking 'herd immunity,' government treats population like animals, says Maierovitch at CPI (Agência Senado, June 2021)
3. Bolsonaro says contamination is “even more effective” than vaccine against covid (Poder 360, June 2021)
4. Government has known since July that herd immunity is ineffective, according to documents (Poder 360, August 2021)
5. Government leader defended 'herd immunity' that later led to the death of 1.5 million by Covid (Carta Campinas, August 2021)
6. Bolsonaro says herd immunity is saving Brazil from Covid (Istoé Dinheiro, January 2022)
7. Bolsonaro ignores vaccine and makes groundless claim about herd immunity (Yahoo, January 2022)
8. Bolsonaro ignores vaccine and data blackout by defending herd immunity (UOL, January 2022)